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General discussion (archive)Quick question - "bought his own press"(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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Posted October 13, 2011
Anyone know where this phrase originates? I find conflicting references where the press may be a newspaper press, or a money printing press. Binging it has not helped.
This question / problem has been solved by cjrgreenimage
Posted October 13, 2011
Urban Dictionary, perhaps?
Posted October 13, 2011
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JudasIscariot: Urban Dictionary, perhaps?
Seems to only be good for words, not phrases.
Posted October 13, 2011
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wpegg: Anyone know where this phrase originates? I find conflicting references where the press may be a newspaper press, or a money printing press. Binging it has not helped.
Are you sure that didn't come from the practice of paying news reporters for good press? As in financing a press junket to the middle of nowhere in order to show off your new development.

EDIT: Or using ones money to become famous, sort of like modern degenerates like the Kardashians.
Post edited October 13, 2011 by hedwards
Posted October 13, 2011
I think it actually means to believe the hype created around one's self. I haven't been able to pinpoint a source, but I'm almost certain it began in the realm of sports where players were said to 'buy their own press' when their recent performance did not match expectations or reputation. I'll keep looking to see if I can source it.
Posted October 13, 2011
Nowadays it means the "press" as an institution, the "fourth estate".

It used to have its literal meaning. If nobody will publish your work the way you want it published, you buy your own printing press and publish it yourself. That meaning is very old, older than Franklin if not so old as Gutenberg.

Now that (thanks to the pioneers at Xerox PARC who Steve Jobs so successfully copied), anybody with a computer can self-publish, two new meanings have sprung up, both very recent. One is "obtaining favorable coverage in the press, by brown-nosing, buying advertising, and the like"; the more common meaning is "coming to believe that the hyperbolic adulation one receives in the press is factual and deserving."

This last meaning seems to be very recent; Google turns up no uses earlier than 2010. We used to say "he reads his own press clippings" to describe someone who basks too much in the public eye.
Posted October 13, 2011
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cjrgreen: SNIP
I had a hard time pulling up anything authoritative, but I did find a reference to Nelson buying press by spending a lot of money engaging in unseemly activities, but it wasn't at all clear whether it was a turn of phrase that would have been used at the time or by the person writing the article in the present day.
Posted October 13, 2011
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cjrgreen: SNIP
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hedwards: I had a hard time pulling up anything authoritative, but I did find a reference to Nelson buying press by spending a lot of money engaging in unseemly activities, but it wasn't at all clear whether it was a turn of phrase that would have been used at the time or by the person writing the article in the present day.
This is also described as "buying press coverage", but that's also an older (and literal) expression.

Newsweek wrote (2010) that Obama "bought his own press" when he thought he had enough influence to push for drastic healthcare reforms. It's more widely used in Hollywood, where it's been applied to acts of directorial hubris perpetrated by everyone from George Lucas to Gregg Araki.
Posted October 13, 2011
Thanks guys, marked cjrgreen as solution, but all posts were really appreciated.
Posted October 13, 2011
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hedwards: I had a hard time pulling up anything authoritative, but I did find a reference to Nelson buying press by spending a lot of money engaging in unseemly activities, but it wasn't at all clear whether it was a turn of phrase that would have been used at the time or by the person writing the article in the present day.
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cjrgreen: This is also described as "buying press coverage", but that's also an older (and literal) expression.

Newsweek wrote (2010) that Obama "bought his own press" when he thought he had enough influence to push for drastic healthcare reforms. It's more widely used in Hollywood, where it's been applied to acts of directorial hubris perpetrated by everyone from George Lucas to Gregg Araki.
I was a bit surprised that there wasn't anything that I could find that predated that. It's sometimes interesting to look up phrases that you see all over the place. But, to find that there wasn't anything available online was somewhat odd, usually you can find something.

I would wager it's because the original phrase was pretty generic and this version was only recently coined.
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General discussion (archive)Quick question - "bought his own press"(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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